Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Dallas Police Chief: "We're Hiring"

Following the killing of cops in Dallas, Police Chief David Brown, a black man, said this about the Black Lives Matter protestors:

"We’re hiring. Get out of that protest line and put in an application. We'll put you in
your neighborhood and help you resolve some of those problems."

What he is really referring to is the fact that we have too few black police officers. As a result, we have too many white officers policing high crime black neighborhoods. Obviously, this increases the odds of a white cop shooting a black suspect, and also feeds into complaints by blacks that white cops are likely to harass them with things like traffic stops.

For example, in Ferguson, Missouri, the community is 67% black. Yet, the police force is made up of 50 white officers and just 3 black officers. In Abilene, Texas, the population is 39.3% black with a police force that is 3.1% black. The imbalance is also true in Baton Rouge; the scene of another recent incident of a black man being killed by a white police officer.

Basically, Chief Brown understands that community policing will get better in this country, if the police departments across America better reflect the demographics of the communities they serve. Black Lives Matter would serve blacks better by becoming part of the solution instead of worsening the problem. But then, not too many people want a job where you go to work everyday wearing a bulletproof vest. Just shows how dangerous the job really is.